Colin Quinn Unconstitutional is Ratified on Netflix

Veteran comic Colin Quinn’s one-man show, Colin Quinn Unconstitutional, debuts on Netflix and offers an often doting and hilarious look back on the creation of the U.S. Constitution by the founding fathers. Quinn never masks his love for the Constitution and is brilliant at placing himself outside of the traditional red-state vs blue-state mentality that, as he puts it, is tearing this country apart. The comedian has no problems using the 1st Amendment to go after the trigger warning crowd that can’t take a joke, or reminding you that before it existed, talking crap about a king or dictator anywhere else in the world in history would get you killed. The bulk of the show deals mostly with the writing of the articles of the Constitution and why and how the government was intended to operate. Being the classic Irish-American that Quinn is, he uses a bar room analogy to explain how the government is supposed to operate. As mentioned, Quinn tackles 1st Amendment issues, as well as a bit on the 2nd Amendment, but leaves the rest of the Bill of Rights for another time.

Quinn moves through the constitution extremely fast and often talks in one or two word bullet points that are so loaded with meaning because of the context in which he dropped them that its pretty obvious this isn’t just a well-written show, but a stream of consciousness that has been brewing inside for a while. At just under 1 hour, this show leaves you wanting more – which is normally how you want to leave your audience – but I was hoping to be laughing a lot more or at least as much during Quinn’s last hilarious jaunt through history in Colin Quinn Long Story Short where he delivers some of the best commentary on world history and human nature in an hour than anything you’ve ever heard. That isn’t meant to dismiss this latest venture, as Colin Quinn Unconstitutional is a fast paced, honest and hysterical look at the world’s greatest document and where it got us. If there is one thing to take away form this show and share with friends, it’s Quinn rightly pointing out that the intent of this governing document was to make it really frickin’ hard to allow government to do anything at all.

Matt Edwards is a filmmaker in his native Los Angeles. He is an alumnus of the 2011 Taliesin Nexus Filmmakers Workshop, a 2014 Liberty Lab Fellow and the current editor of SCC. Matt is also host of the The Rear View film podcast. Follow @TRVpodcast and @mattchrised on Twitter.